Target CIO Beth Jacob resigns following data breach

Target Corp.’s Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob is resigning, effective immediately, in wake of the massive data breach during the holiday 2013 shopping season which saw as many as 70 million customers having their personal information stolen, including 40 million debit and credit card accounts. The retailer also said would be overhauling its information security practices and compliance division, and would be looking for external candidates to serve as an interim CIO.

Target Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob has reportedly resigned as the company moves to recover from a series of data breaches. The news, reported by the Associated Press, comes as Target is trying to restore trust in the company’s security processes and procedures. Target saw a sales drop off after as many as personal data for as many as 110 million accounts may have been breached. Jacob had been CIO since 2008. In a recent interview with ZDNet prior to the breaches, Jacob walked through Target’s approach to mobile commerce, the in-store experience and ironically how point of sale technology leaves an impression. Target’s point-of-sale terminals were at the core of Target’s data breach.